The city pulsed in every beat at the 30th anniversary Donna Karan show. And why shouldn’t it? New York City has always been the heart of Donna Karan’s work, and this season it serves as the main inspiration. Set in a building along the New York Stock Exchange, the city’s ceaseless motion, glistening lights, and sleek skyline were all captured in the simply luxurious pieces that came down the runway.

These pieces only further served what we all already know – that Donna Karan may be inspired by the city, but she designs for the women in it. “Thirty years later, I see style as an evolution, a unique reflection of who you are, where you’ve been and where you are going,” she said.

In New York City or out of it, we’ll be going with you, Donna…congratulations on 30 wonderful years…

Winter in New York can be brutal, which is why I have been especially enjoying the resort temperatures of L.A. and Brazil where our recent work has taken us. Last year I had the wonderful job of shooting Ava Smith for Donna Karan’s Resort 2014 mailer without knowing how significant this time of year would be. As you know, I have a very deep photographic relationship with Donna Karan and this week, as New York Fashion Week begins again with designers showing their Fall / Winter 2014 collections, I will be in house with them trying to capture the intimate moments that I associate so very well with the Donna Karan women I aspire to be…

The story is of an urban traveler…a woman trekking across the world, finding beauty everywhere she goes: in the swirling dust of the Australian Outback, the golden plains of Africa at sunrise, the red clays of the American Southwest. The journey has a palette of dusty reds, browns, and golds wrapped in the open expanse of blue summer skies.

The result of this voyage is a collection that is perfect for summer…

The pieces are earthy and sensual, draped for real women’s bodies to highlight our beautiful femininity, regardless of size or shape. What I loved most is how realistic and supremely wearable they were without losing any sense of style or artistry. This season was full of artisanal beauty, with hand-blocked prints and hand-beaded embroideries, which only added to the grounded sophistication.

This season our New York woman goes back to the earth with Donna Karan…

Donna Karan knows women. She knows how they sashay across streets, she knows how they command a corporate desk, she knows how they go out on the town. Donna Karan designs for all of the facets of a woman’s life, and nowhere was it more clear than in her most recent collection, “The L Word”.

Using several “L” words as inspiration – long, lean, languid, luxurious, light, limitless – Karan created a collection that captured the dualities of a modern woman. The pieces were an elegant mix of urban and calm, fitted and draped, neutral and bright, allowing the woman who wears them to simply be, whenever and wherever she may find herself…now that is something this New Yorker can relate to.

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Visual storytellers Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg unfold tales of fashion, travel, truth and beauty. Through photographs, videos, and their own invention, Cinemagraphs, they create new worlds — from their New York City workspace, Ann Street Studio. May you find something here to inspire you.